


Fear and Lies

by vikki



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Book of Circus, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 01:50:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2091345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vikki/pseuds/vikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One thousand words on honesty and courage.</p>
<p>  <i>His butler smiles. "Humans are interesting," he says. "I wonder, was the Baron's lie a mercy or a sin?"</i></p>
<p>  <i>The Earl Phantomhive curls his lip. "It does not matter."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear and Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Ten 100-word drabbles over the climax of the Circus Arc. Spoilers abound for those who are watching the anime only. Friendly reminder that the arc, and thus this story, contains much violence done to children.

II.

The Earl does not object to being carried just this once, trading dignity for speed as his butler carries him across the countryside.

"This Baron, he must be quite the pervert," the butler says, not even winded.

"I know that," his master snaps. "It's the only logical conclusion." He looks up at the butler's face. "Don't talk of unnecessary things."

"Yes, my Lord," the demon replies. "I am only concerned because your heart rate is elevated. Are you afraid?"

His master flinches and makes a sound of disgust. "What do I have to fear from men?" he asks, and smiles.

 

V.

the cage opens and it is not the first time there are so many of them wearing fine clothes like he used to and then he vomits on his glove

a hand grasps her his wrist and pulls him out they are putting her on the altar and he's kicking and screaming but he's weak nothing he can do she lays already dead her chest fluttering the knife falls and strikes his chest

nobody will come and he screams in pain and terror with a hoarse voice seba--sebas---sebastian sebastian _sebastian_

"This is an order," he screams, now and then. "Kill them!"

 

X.

_My Queen,_

_The matter of the missing children has been resolved._

_My sincerest regrets that I could not deal with the matter to your satisfaction; the children in question were beyond rescue. Rest assured, however, that their abductors have been dealt with swiftly and completely. They will not trouble you again._

_Your humble servant,  
Earl Ciel Phantomhive_

"A nice lie, young master," the butler says as he pours the black wax.

The earl presses his signet ring into the seal. "Do not presume above your station, Sebastian," he says, a tight smile biting into his cheek. "I do not lie."

 

VII.

The heat and ash burns his cheek; burning flesh is not kind to the nose, turning his stomach. But he will take this over the smell of blood. Sebastian cradles him as one holds a swooning maid or a blushing bride, out of the fire and into the darkness.

Before him lies the body of the first woman to ever share his bed.

His clothes stink of soot.

"You would not do the maiden the honor of killing her yourself?" his butler asks, polite.

"I left my gun behind," he says. "And after all, are you not a sufficient weapon?"

 

I.

"Preserve your soul," the Undertaker says.

By the time the door closes, the young master is smirking; by the carriage, he starts to laugh. His butler raises his eyebrows. "May I ask what is so funny?"

"Why, Sebastian, I'm surprised at you," the young master says, still chuckling. "Surely you of all beings can see the irony in me preserving my soul."

The butler smiles until the boy's laugh fades to an uneasy smirk. "If you don't make an effort, young master, then what can your faithful servant hope to accomplish?

"After all, I am a demon of a butler."

 

IV.

The Baron is laughing and smiling, his bandaged face garishly lit by the lanterns in the hallway. He smells of disinfectant. "I am so honored that you, one of the special people, would turn your face towards me even for an instant with a serious expression," he cries.

"You disgust me," the Earl says in a tight voice. "And I will crush you like a worm under my shoe when this charade is over."

"Even the greatest man must look at the remains of a worm on his sole," the Baron replies in a whisper. "Even a worm is noticed!"

 

VI.

I am the Earl Ciel Phantomhive, he thinks. I do not lose control. He does everything by calculation. He is privy to the secrets of London. He will not tolerate insolence from his demon butler.

The vomit on his tongue and glove raise a stench above even the blood around him. Someone is panting for breath.

"No mercy, is it?" his butler says over the rustle of cloth in the echoing chamber.

"The Earl of Phantomhive ..." he gasps, "leaves no loose ends."

He sees a small pale face behind bars, staring as the firelight rises.

"No loose ends," he repeats.

 

III.

_This is sick. This is disgusting._

The girl does not cry out when her head is split open on the ground like a ripe melon; she smiles half-heartedly to the end. The boy's hands tremble and he clutches the arms of his seat so tightly his gloves pucker to the wrist.

The Baron laughs and claps his hands; the ringmaster flinches, and his voice wavers as he announces the next act.

"You must admit," his butler murmurs, "These children have no fear."

The lordling clenches his teeth and fixes his gaze, but he knows the butler smiles at his back.

 

IX.

He laughs and laughs. "Lies! All lies!" He cackles. "They died for nothing!" Irony and deception - the circus folk laid their lives upon a knife's edge, never knowing that they wore their precious brothers in empty sockets; they thought to give their dead family someone to rely on, never knowing they relied on their bones to stand tall.

They were human, and were deceived.

His butler smiles when the wind blows a ribbon away. "Humans are interesting," he says. "I wonder, was the Baron's lie a mercy or a sin?"

The Earl Phantomhive curls his lip. "It does not matter."

 

VIII.

Why did he kill the children?

He tells his butler: because they would never recover. This is the truth. He has seen those empty eyes before; what more did they have to live for? All their happiness was forgotten.

He tells himself: because no one else should remember that horror. He is unusually equipped, with a monster breathing down his neck. What good could it do, even if recovery proved possible, to know the evil of the world?

He knows: he saw his own fear in their existence: a terror he dared not let live lest it devour him alive.

 

_fin_


End file.
